8 SSDs Compared

Corsair has introduced three series of SSDs --Neutron, Force, and

Accelerate. While Neutron and Force series are for regular usage, the Accelerate series of SSDs are meant to be used as cache memory along

with whatever hard drive you already have to enhance system performance. As a result, you don't have to re-install the OS on your system. If you want to know more about how cache SSDs work, then read our review of SANDisk's

ReadyCache SSD at tinyurl.com/b8tl2kg.

How We Tested

All the Corsair SSDs were tested on a motherboard with SATA 3 interface, 4 GB RAM, and 64-bit Windows 7 OSHD Tune 2.55 was used to measure the average transfer rates for each SSD. We followed the exact same methodology as our last month's SSD shootout. Therefore, we've provided

graphs for the Cost/GB and HDTune performance of all the 9 drives we've reviewed over the past three months. Moreover, the scores given in each Corsair drive review in this article are relative to all the 9 drives to give you a better idea of where they stand. Interestingly, you'll notice that all the Corsair drives have the lowest Cost/GB as compared to all other drives barring Intel's 335 series SSD. This makes them more competitively priced as compared to the others. Moreover, even on the performance front, Corsair Force GT

and Neutron have shown better performance than all other drives except (again), Intel's 335 series SSD.

Corsair Force GS

Both Force GS and GT belong to the same family of SSDs from Corsair, and differ a little bit in both price as well as performance. While the Force GT (reviewed last month) costs Rs. 15635, the Force GS is a little bit more expensive at Rs. 16,000. Performance wise however, the GT gave slightly better results in HDTune than the GS, as can be seen in the performance table. The Force GS boasts of SandForce SF-2200 SSD Controller and fast 24 nm Toggle NAND memory. Having a SandForce controller means that instead of just writing the data to the NAND as other SSDs do, realtime compression and de-duplication engine is used. This can however, lead to TRIM command related issues at times For more on TRIM and what it means, please refer to our SSD buying guide in the last issue, or read it online at http://tinyurl. com/bfe73jm. Like other members of the SSDs that we received, this one too comes with SATA 3 interface and 240 GB storage space. One drawback with Force series is that SSDs in this segment come with 3 year warranty while company gives 2 extra years warranty for Neutron series.

Bottomline: With SandForce SSD Controller, this SSD is for those who want high performance at a competitive price.

Price: Rs 16,000 (3-year warranty)

Key Specs: 240 GB, SATA III interface, SandForce SF-2200 SSD Controller

Pro: Performance, Cons: None

Corsair Neutron

The Neutron family also has two SSD models-the Neutron and the Neutron GTX. The GTX is slightly more expensive than the regular Neutron, and is meant for high end PCs and notebooks requiring good random as well as sequential

reads/write speeds. In terms of performance, we found the Neutron drive's results were slightly lower than the Force GT, but they were the third highest among all drives tested. The Neutron drive comes with advanced Link_A_

Media (LAMD) SATA 3 SSD controller which is usually not seen in commercial SSD segments. The 240 GB drive we received comes with 5 years warranty.

Bottomline: A high performing and value-for-money SSD.

Price: Rs 17,800 (3-year warranty)

Key Specs: 240 GB, SATA III interface, Link_A_Media (LAMD) SATA 3 SSD controller

Pro: High performance and warranty, Cons: Cost

Corsair Force GT

The Force GT is marketed as a high performing SSD for those who want very high performance out of their local storage. Besides performance other differentiating feature about this drive is that it supports Windows 7 TRIM command, which enables better write performance and longer SSD life. Other features of this drive include support for SATA 3 interface and bundled 3.5 inch case for compatibility with standard PC chassis. We tested the transfer rate of this drive using HD Tune 2.55 benchmark on a Core i7 3.30 GHz machine

with 3 GB RAM and Windows 7 32-bit OS and found average transfer rates of 354 MB/s on SATA 3 interface. This is lower than Intel 335 Series which gave a score of 375 MB/s. If this performance is compared with Intel SSD 520 which gave average scores of 318 MB/s then Corsair Force GT is definitely ahead.

Bottomline: A high performing SSD for a great price.

Price: Rs 15,635 (3-year warranty)

Key Specs: 240 GB, SATA III interface

Pro: Great performance at a great price

Cons: None